JERUSALEM — Remains of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in 2004, were exhumed from his tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday as part of an inquiry into whether he might have been poisoned, Palestinian officials said.

The probe was ordered after an investigative report on the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera in July presented what it said was evidence of possible poisoning, reviving suspicions surrounding Arafat’s death. The report prompted Arafat’s widow, Suha, to call for an exhumation. It was authorized by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank.

Palestinian officials have long accused Israel of poisoning Arafat, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who personified dreams of Palestinian statehood and over decades shifted from embracing terrorist tactics to negotiating a peace deal. Israeli officials emphatically deny the claims.

Some 20 samples from Arafat’s body were taken at dawn at his tomb in the presidential compound and given to French, Swiss and Russian experts, who will examine them in their home countries, officials said. Results are not expected for several months.

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